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Published: December 12th 2006
The departure from London Heathrow to Colombo was made all the more pleasurable in the company of another independent traveller, Ilona, latterly of Oxford but hailing originally from Poland. Her own stay in Sri Lanka was to be remarkably brief - just three hours, enough time to see a couple of palm trees near the airport and feel the intense local heat until boarding her onward flight to Delhi and beyond. Her convivial company removed from my mind almost completely the discomfort thrust upon me, a tall gentleman, who had requested from the airline two months prior an exit seat with sufficient legroom for both journeys, but who’d been let down and squashed unceremoniously between two solid armrests and with legs hunched, in the middle of the plane somewhere. A bit like a grasshopper folding himself up and squeezing into a matchbox for ten hours.
The two-hour journey from airport to Colombo city centre is without exception an experience to behold, and the main features this time round were heavily-laden cattle straining alongside the rush-hour traffic, the sight of half-finished buildings seemingly propped up using nothing more than bamboo scaffolding, and a gentleman relieving himself into some bushes with his
back not more than three or four feet from the cocophonous traffic that whizzed by behind him. When you’ve gotta go, you’ve gotta go!
For the first part of my stay in Sri Lanka, home was Padmini’s fun guesthouse in Colombo 03, a small haven sought-after by backpackers touring the country or European volunteer workers on a break from their labours in more central areas of Sri Lanka; and in this case, a UK cricket coach working in local schools and cricket academies. I had pre-booked my favourite balcony room, and looked forward to upwards of a week of two/three cold showers a day, local food spicy enough to burn the hair in your nostrils and constant negotiation with the trishaw drivers over the saving of a few pence on the fares. The word on people’s lips was ‘chikungunya’, which I figured must be a new, uber-hot, spicy dish that had taken Colombo by storm and filled the toilets throughout the city with evidence of its potency. I was mistaken. Chikungunya was the trendy new disease served up with a mosquito bite, from the annoying little creatures who’d set themselves up in breeding grounds around the edges of the
city, and whose victims suffered viral fever that could be extremely nasty if not treated pretty damned quick. If the terrorists don’t get you here in Colombo, the mozzies bloody well might.
Having successfully re-established my local mobile phone contract, which allowed for surprisingly low-cost communication with the UK as well as for local use, I made contact straight away with friends and acquaintances in Colombo and Kandy, some of whom I have come to know well after several visits to Sri Lanka over the years. Arrangements were made to begin a coaching assignment as soon as I’d settled into my guesthouse and relinquished the remains of any jetlag, and St Joseph’s College was to be the venue, working voluntarily on a junior cricket camp over four mornings during the following week.
As part of my entertainment in these first exciting days back in Sri Lanka, I had expected to participate in a psychic evening being staged at Colombo’s City Hall and to which I’d been invited as a guest. Sadly for me this was cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances
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Alex Hall (U15 RCC)
non-member comment
Hi Mike
HI Mike I read the blog and i see that u r having a good time. I can't wait to get over there with my school. We arrive on 26th Dec - return on the 7th. I hope u aren't doing too good a job with our opposition! Do you think we might cross paths? (did u get a copy of my itinerary from my Dad?) Would be nice to meet up. Where are you off to next? Happy Christmas Alex Hall